Perkins expanding horizons

You have one of the most recognizable and respected brands in the world, 183 years old, universally respected and loved. Your name is synonymous with your product and mission, like Xerox means photocopy and Kleenex means tissue. So what do you do when you want to expand your brand?

You have one of the most recognizable and respected brands in the world, 183 years old, universally respected and loved. Your name is synonymous with your product and mission, like Xerox means photocopy and Kleenex means tissue. So what do you do when you want to expand your brand?

The redoubtable Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, now named Perkins, faces that challenge.

Debby Smith, the library outreach coordinator for the Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library, was on Cape last week to talk to groups and agencies about the new and expanded programs that Perkins is undertaking. As of last June, Perkins is the lead agency for the 21st-Century Communications and Video Access (CCVA) law, which mandates the addition of enhancements to serve all kinds of handicaps by developing and implementing adaptive technologies in broadcasting, movies, telecommunications and computer programming. One reason they were chosen for this distinction is the work they already do for people with disabilities.

The Perkins Library provides services to more than 26,000 people in New England alone. Books and periodicals are available for people with visual, physical or reading disabilities. All their services are free of charge. The library processes more than 600,000 books every year, going out to their clients in small blue boxes. The books are on special cassettes that operate only on the Perkins players to conform to copyright laws. The next time you complain about post office rates, consider that all these cassette boxes are only one part of the volume of mail that the USPS handles every year as Free Matter for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.

By calling Perkins or visiting its website, you can get an application and details on how to register for services.

The Perkins Library serves more than the blind, although they are still the paramount source for braille reading materials in the world. The Perkins categories of eligibility are blind; visually impaired; physical disability; reading disability, and deaf/blindness. The criteria on the application states that you can qualify if you "have a physical limitation that makes holding a book or turning pages difficult," such as rheumatoid arthritis or Parkinson's disease. Among the special accessories for the cassette players are headphones and amplifiers, remote controls, extension levers for those with limited ability to use their hands, pillow phone readers for those restricted to bed and even breath-operated on/off switches for those who are paralyzed.

Even as Perkins serves more than the blind, they are more than books as well. They have a tremendous library of videos and DVDs with descriptive video narration, which provides a verbal description of the action in a movie in much the same way that closed captioning provides a visual commentary on speech. They have available dozens of magazines like Rolling Stone, Yankee, Kiplinger, Boston Magazine, and even Playboy — for the articles.

But my favorite service is NEWSLINE, the online and telephone newspaper service. Using your phone, you can access more than 300 newspapers. These are both national papers, like the Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor and New York Times, as well as international newspapers, like The China Daily, the London Telegram, Financial Times and The Guardian from the UK, the India Times, Jerusalem Post, Kathimerini from Greece, the Moscow Times, New Zealand Herald, and Toronto Globe & Mail. Closer to home, The Boston Globe, Springfield Republican, Worcester Telegram & Gazette and even the Cape Cod Times are part of NEWSLINE. When people lose their sight, many miss having their newspapers the most — not just for news but for all the other things there.

For example, using NEWSLINE, by punching in a code and after naming your provider, you can get the television listings to find your programs.

It's worth noting that the most famous pupil of the Perkins School was Helen Keller, who had several disabilities. At the end of the day, the best way to expand your brand is with positive and creative change. By expanding its reach and resources to those with other handicaps and impairments, Perkins is upholding the best of its legacy into a new century.

Cynthia E. Stead lives in Dennis and works for Sight Loss Services on Cape Cod. Email her at cestead@gmail.com.